Registered trademark of Studio Esoterico CornelioThe Occult PhilosophyA website by Studio Esoterico Cornelio
III

Masters of the Renaissance

Between the mid-fifteenth century and the early decades of the seventeenth, a generation of philosophers, physicians, theologians and humanists changed the way Europe thought about nature, the heavens and the soul. This section tells the story of the masters who prepared, accompanied and continued the work of Cornelius Agrippa: Marsilio Ficino and his natural magic, Pico della Mirandola and the nine hundred theses, Johannes Trithemius with his angelic ciphers, Johannes Reuchlin and Christian Kabbalah, Paracelsus and the light of nature, down to Giordano Bruno, Tommaso Campanella, John Dee, Robert Fludd and Heinrich Khunrath. Each article presents a specific figure or work, with dates, places, editions and controversies, always distinguishing documented facts from the legends that surrounded them. What emerges is a world in which magic, science and faith were not yet separate, and in which the search for the hidden forces of nature was also a search for God. Alongside the defenders of magic stand its critics, such as Pietro Pomponazzi, because dissent too is part of this story.

♈︎♉︎♊︎♋︎♌︎♍︎♎︎♏︎♐︎♑︎♒︎♓︎

Marsilio Ficino and De vita: Medicine, Stars and Natural Magic

Marsilio Ficino's Three Books on Life (1489): Saturnine melancholy, the spirit of the world and the line between natural and demonic magic.

♈︎♉︎♊︎♋︎♌︎♍︎♎︎♏︎♐︎♑︎♒︎♓︎

Ficino, Translator of Hermes: the Corpus Hermeticum and Careggi

How Cosimo de' Medici had Ficino translate the Corpus Hermeticum before Plato, and how the Pimander of 1471 transformed Renaissance culture.

♈︎♉︎♊︎♋︎♌︎♍︎♎︎♏︎♐︎♑︎♒︎♓︎

Pico della Mirandola's Oration: Man, Magic and Kabbalah

Giovanni Pico della Mirandola's oration, written in 1486 and never delivered: human freedom, natural magic and the Christian discovery of Kabbalah.

♈︎♉︎♊︎♋︎♌︎♍︎♎︎♏︎♐︎♑︎♒︎♓︎

Pico's 900 Theses: the Disputation That Never Was and the Papal Ban

Pico della Mirandola's Conclusiones, printed in Rome in 1486: magical and Kabbalistic theses, Pope Innocent VIII's commission and his flight to France.

♈︎♉︎♊︎♋︎♌︎♍︎♎︎♏︎♐︎♑︎♒︎♓︎

Giordano Bruno's De umbris idearum: Memory, Wheels and Images

Giordano Bruno's On the Shadows of Ideas, Paris 1582: the art of memory, Lullian wheels, the images of the decans and his debt to Agrippa.

♈︎♉︎♊︎♋︎♌︎♍︎♎︎♏︎♐︎♑︎♒︎♓︎

Bruno's De magia and De vinculis: Magic as the Art of Binding

Giordano Bruno's magical writings, unpublished until 1891: De magia, De vinculis in genere and love as the supreme bond that holds the cosmos together.

♈︎♉︎♊︎♋︎♌︎♍︎♎︎♏︎♐︎♑︎♒︎♓︎

Paracelsus, the Rebel Physician: Alchemy, Stars and Elemental Spirits

The life and ideas of Paracelsus (1493-1541): the Basel scandal, the three alchemical principles, the light of nature and his book on elemental beings.

♈︎♉︎♊︎♋︎♌︎♍︎♎︎♏︎♐︎♑︎♒︎♓︎

Trithemius and the Steganographia: Angels, Ciphers and Secret Writing

Abbot Trithemius's Steganographia: the manuscript scandal, the 1606 printing, the Polygraphia and the discovery that it hid real cryptographic systems.

☉☽☿♀♂♃♄♈︎♉︎♊︎♋︎♌︎♍︎♎︎♏︎♐︎♑︎♒︎♓︎

Trithemius and Agrippa: the Master of Würzburg and the Letter of 1510

The meeting of Abbot Trithemius and the young Agrippa, the first draft of the Occult Philosophy and the advice to keep higher secrets for trusted friends.

♈︎♉︎♊︎♋︎♌︎♍︎♎︎♏︎♐︎♑︎♒︎♓︎

Johannes Reuchlin and De verbo mirifico: the Wonder-Working Word

Johannes Reuchlin, De verbo mirifico of 1494 and De arte cabalistica of 1517: the pentagrammaton, Christian Kabbalah and the defence of Hebrew books.

♈︎♉︎♊︎♋︎♌︎♍︎♎︎♏︎♐︎♑︎♒︎♓︎

Giambattista Della Porta and Magia naturalis: the Secrets of Naples

Giambattista Della Porta, the Natural Magic of 1558 and 1589, the Academy of Secrets and physiognomy: magic as an early form of experimental science.

♈︎♉︎♊︎♋︎♌︎♍︎♎︎♏︎♐︎♑︎♒︎♓︎

Tommaso Campanella and On the Sense of Things and on Magic

Tommaso Campanella, the world as a sentient animal, twenty-seven years in Neapolitan prisons and the astrological rites held in Rome with Pope Urban VIII.

♈︎♉︎♊︎♋︎♌︎♍︎♎︎♏︎♐︎♑︎♒︎♓︎

John Dee and the Monas hieroglyphica: One Symbol for the Whole Cosmos

John Dee, mathematician to Elizabeth I: the Monas hieroglyphica of 1564, the Mortlake library and the angelic conversations held with Edward Kelley.

♈︎♉︎♊︎♋︎♌︎♍︎♎︎♏︎♐︎♑︎♒︎♓︎

Girolamo Cardano: Physician, Mathematician, Astrologer and Man of Fate

Girolamo Cardano (1501-1576): the Ars magna, De subtilitate, the horoscope of Christ, his arrest in Bologna and the guardian spirit of his autobiography.

♈︎♉︎♊︎♋︎♌︎♍︎♎︎♏︎♐︎♑︎♒︎♓︎

Ludovico Lazzarelli and the Crater Hermetis: a Poet in the School of Hermes

Ludovico Lazzarelli, humanist of San Severino, disciple of the prophet Giovanni Mercurio da Correggio and author of the Hermetic dialogue Crater Hermetis.

♈︎♉︎♊︎♋︎♌︎♍︎♎︎♏︎♐︎♑︎♒︎♓︎

Francesco Giorgi and De harmonia mundi: the Cosmos as Music

The Venetian Franciscan Francesco Giorgi and De harmonia mundi (1525): Pythagorean numbers, Christian Kabbalah and the proportions of a Venetian church.

♈︎♉︎♊︎♋︎♌︎♍︎♎︎♏︎♐︎♑︎♒︎♓︎

Pietro Pomponazzi and De incantationibus: Wonders without Demons

Pietro Pomponazzi, his 1516 treatise on the soul and De incantationibus: explaining cures, wonders and spells through natural and celestial causes.

♈︎♉︎♊︎♋︎♌︎♍︎♎︎♏︎♐︎♑︎♒︎♓︎

Guillaume Postel, Orientalist and Visionary of Universal Concord

Guillaume Postel (1510-1581): Constantinople, the Latin versions of the Zohar and the Sefer Yetzirah, the Venetian Mother Zuana and the Inquisition.

♈︎♉︎♊︎♋︎♌︎♍︎♎︎♏︎♐︎♑︎♒︎♓︎

Robert Fludd and the Utriusque cosmi historia: Macrocosm and Microcosm

Robert Fludd, London physician, defender of the Rosicrucians and author of the History of the Two Worlds: the Oppenheim plates and his clashes with Kepler.

♈︎♉︎♊︎♋︎♌︎♍︎♎︎♏︎♐︎♑︎♒︎♓︎

Heinrich Khunrath and the Amphitheatrum sapientiae aeternae

Heinrich Khunrath, physician and alchemist of Leipzig, and his Amphitheatre of Eternal Wisdom: the oratory-laboratory and alchemy as a path of prayer.